1. Field
The invention relates to an areal gripper for the targeted picking-up, handling and putting down of objects particularly of limp and/or three dimensionally shaped objects. The areal gripper can be employed in all sectors in which (automated) picking-up, handling and putting down of objects takes place for example in automobile production, aircraft manufacture, telemedicine, robotics and others.
2. Brief Discussion of Related Art
Areal grippers are known in the prior art and are for example the subject of the following German patent publications: DE 103 16 125 B3, DE 102 16 221 C1 and DE 10 2004 016 637 A1. The handling of limp objects/work pieces/semi-finished products such as for example glass or carbon fibre mats, cables and others, or objects having a three-dimensional surface with small curvature radii, is not or not satisfactorily possible with the known areal grippers. Up to now, limp work pieces for example are mostly processed manually. During this, especially during the manufacture of complex fibre placements with predetermined fibre orientation inaccuracies in the processing and as a result the failure of a component manufactured therefrom can occur.
The term “limp objects” in this case is to mean objects which are characterized by the characteristics: low modulus of elasticity, low expansion rigidity and large deformations as a result of minor force and torque loading. Limp objects can be distinguished by the geometry into elongated objects (for example solid, hollow cylinders), areal objects (for example mats, foils) or block-shaped objects (for example rubber bearings, pads). Limp objects are also called objects of unstable form or dimensionally stable objects. “Small curvature radii” here means curvature radii in the range from <50 cm, particularly <20 cm, <10 cm, <5 cm, <2 cm, <1 cm, <0.5 cm, or 1 mm.